Elizabeth Lawrence picked up a billy club, a badge and a pistol in 1922, becoming the first woman to join the city’s Police Department.

She spent 30 years as an officer working, with her friend Esther O’Neil, as an officer with the department’s Special Squad.

The two women dealt primarily with domestic crimes and juvenile issues, but both were full police officers who had the power to arrest and spent time on patrol.

A story in The Herald News on Aug. 25, 1937, outlined the work of the two officers.

“They work day and night, patrolling stores, dance halls, theatres, parks, amusement spots, beaches and homes,” the story reads. “Their tales are vivid, many of them amusing. Some sad, a few grotesque.”

They checked on homes during the flu epidemic in the 1920 and served as air raid wardens during World War II.

In a 1952 story, Lawrence said her most difficult period as a police officer came during Prohibition, from 1920 to 1933, “when bootleggers, dance halls and burlesque houses flourished in Fall River,” the story reports.

She also served as president of the Fall River Professional and Business Women’s Club, beginning that role in 1935, and with the city’s Better Housing Committee.